The Watering Hole; Thursday February 25 2016; Guantanamo SOLUTION!

President Obama is being raked over the Republican coals yet one more time, and all because he has once again suggested that the Guantanamo Detention Center (or whatever the hell it’s called) be permanently and forever closed, that the prisoners held there be (finally) treated as if law, and fair trial, and innocence, and guilt each and all mean something in this country. Republicans, of course, have freaked out over the concept — “We’ll all be dead!!!” they scream. “Terrorists! Muslims! Oh Ick!! Leave ’em there!!”

I have a better idea.

I heard on the news somewhere that it costs us about $5 million per terrorist per year to keep those nasty bums incarcerated down there in Guantanamo. And since Republicans want to keep Guantanamo open for the foreseeable future, we can count on that expense to continue — for the foreseeable. So in view of that, I offer my suggestions — solutions! — to the Guantanamo mess; SOLUTIONS to those who would benefit most, i.e. to Congressional Republicans along with Republican Presidential candidates everywhere.

My proposed five-step procedure is a simple one:

Set up an (offshore/tax free) account for each of the incarcerees in the amount of $5 million U.S., and guarantee an additional annual (tax free) deposit of $5 million per year for each of them, for the foreseeable.

Via official paperwork, grant each and every incarceree an American name, full identity papers, and full citizenship (including, of course the right to keep and bear arms) with but one proviso: no passport can be issued for the foreseeable; i.e. each incarceree must agree to live the rest of his life as if he was born a rich Republican, and he must do so with nary a complaint about anything, EVER!

Set up each incarceree (and his family, if he so desires) in a beach-front home/property anywhere along the Atlantic coast (south of the Mason-Dixon line) or anywhere along the Gulf of Mexico coast from S. Florida to S. Texas, each property to be fully paid for with funds that would otherwise be wasted on toilet seats by the Defense Department.

Allow each incarceree (and all of his age-eligible family members) to register to vote in whichever state they choose to live, with but one proviso: each and all MUST swear to ALWAYS vote Republican in EVERY election, ando NEVER for a Democrat or an Independent, upon guarantee of torture via waterboarding or whatever method is in vogue at the time of any such treasonous indiscretion.

Allow Republicans to proclaim and insist full credit for having solved the Guantanamo issue by ignoring Obama’s ridiculous and anti-American proposals of allowing the law and the Constitution to waste even more money on trials; by strengthening America all-the-while increasing the number of Republican-voting devotees in the process.

It’s so simple!!!

I do hereby offer the above details of this full procedure proposal to the RNC, to the respective Senate and House majorities, and to any/all of their current (or future?) Presidential candidates, and all with NO CHARGE! today or forever! My gift to a free, and prosperous, and TOLERANT! America! So Reince! Mitch! Paul! Donald! Anyone! It’s right here, and it’s for YOU and for the 91! FREEDOM!

You are absolutely right. Pompeo might have ignored any such order, but Pompeo is a conservative, and conservatives don’t like to be told what to do. Even by people lawfully in a position to tell them what to do. Would Pompeo show such disrespect to Speaker Ryan?

Secondly, there would be nothing unconstitutional about Obama ordering military prisoners moved somewhere else. If anything, it’s the Republicans who are disrespecting the Constitution by not allowing these people their right to a speedy trial.

When the Bush Admin set this whole thing up, they did it in a way that would make it very difficult to honor these prisoners’ rights (and they do have rights.) Bush wanted military tribunals precisely because the rules of evidence are much more lax than in civilian court, and things would be allowed that no civilian court ever would. And THAT’s the real reason these people won’t get a fair trial in the USA. Evidence that would be used against them was obtained illegally, despite the fact that they went to two lawyers in their admin who were willing to ignore the Constitution and international treaties and say that torture wasn’t torture. Then they hid behind their lawyers’ “findings”, which is ironic coming from conservative Republicans with no respect for lawyers.

In re “rights” — I think it’s more than fair to say that in the collective ‘mind’ of the GOP, the ONLY ‘right’ that counts is that which they perceive to be their (god-given, usually) ‘right’ to impose their belief(s), their ideas, their attitudes, on everyone else. They seem, in fact, to actually believe that that’s what the Constitution says, and most will argue a given notion into the ground before they’ll accept an actual reality.

And of course, “rights” are mainly the property of the wealthy and/or the evangelical nutcases; all the rest of us are, in effect, slaves to those two realities, because nothing else is worth considering. Oh, and being white is typically a major part of the equation.

On Tuesday, right-wing radio host Michael Savage reacted to President Obama’s proposal to close Guantanamo Bay “in the waning months of his mad, mad reign of terror.” Savage, claiming that Obama’s attempt to close the military detention facility is motivated by a secret, terrorist-sympathizing agenda, offered his own proposal for Gitmo: firing squads.

“People who, if found guilty and, by the way, if they’re not guilty, what are they doing in Guantanamo to begin with?” he said. “They’re put there because they’re guilty. If they’re so guilty of consorting with terrorists or plotting terrorism, why have they not been executed to begin with? Why don’t you just line them up in front of a firing squad and give [Guantanamo] back to Castro?”

Just a guess, but I’m thinking that the Savage Weiner hasn’t logged onto The Zoo yet today. Of course, he said all this on Tuesday, so maybe he’s just not had the opportunity to take it all back and instead go for something really solid! 😆

It has already been proven that something like seven dozen prisoners are actually innocent. They aren’t there because they’re guilty, Weiner, they’re there because they got picked up on the battlefield and locked away without trial.

Plus they ain’t ‘Muricans anyway, so they ain’t got no rights. Hell, they ain’t even bein’ held on ‘Murican soil!

If memory serves, one of the reasons the Bushies put that detention camp in Gitmo was that it was not on American soil and therefore they assumed that Constitutional rights didn’t apply to the prisoners. I assume that’s how they justified torture as well. What I don’t get is where they got all that, especially the attitude on torture since it’s prohibited by ratified treaty, and since Article VI. Clause 2 clearly states that

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land;. and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

I guess stuff like “supreme Law of the Land” is a meaningless phrase to Constitutionalist Republicans.

Yep, I know. Puzzled me why no one of legal authority called out the Bushies on the whole matter. Puzzled me that Obama didn’t pursue charges against Bush et al. Why did everyone look the other way? Why does everyone STILL look the other way? I do give Obama credit for bringing the issue up again, but why the seven years of non-discussion since he first mentioned it early in his first term? Doesn’t speak very loudly in support of America’s oft-stated “rule of law” thesis. Makes me think there’s more bullshit driving this country than typically meets the eye — or the coverage by mass media, for that matter.

Today, 8 in 10 Hispanic voters have an unfavorable view of Trump. That includes more than 7 in 10 who have a “very unfavorable” impression of him, which is more than double the percentage of any other major candidate.

And here I thought Trump ‘loved’ Hispanics, that he employed ‘thousands’ of them.

ya know, I do believe those sovereign citizens who took up arms and invaded a federal building under force of arms, may well be unlawful alien enemy combatants – subject to indefinite incarceration in Guantanamo without never being charged fer no offense ever. They can even be used to prove once an fer all that waterboardin’ ain’t no torture.

That may well be the most poetic description of what’s happening in / to this country that I’ve run across. Fascinating how ‘invisible’ is our nat’l destruction to oh, so many who live here — and still support the AFM, the American Fascist Movement, aka today’s GOP.

In case you wonder, I’m still watching, but this is almost impossible to relay. You can watch a drunken brawl on Saturday evening in some hick town and what the combatants there shout at each other would be more reasonable than was goes on here.

Break. I read Marco is ‘killing it’ (Glenn Beck). He did take the fight to Trump, but the stadards of discussion are ridiculous. If you wish for McCain and Romney to reappear on the political stage, things are very bad. And I’d welcome both back in the race.

The idea that any of those goons is going to defile the White House is galling.

Are there ANY adults supervising this (what sounds like a) free-for-all?

Wolf should still have some vestigial memory of what a political debate used to look like in the dim past – ya know, conducted with a sense of decorum, at least feigned politeness, fewer empty boasts, etc. He (and his ilk) should be ashamed of themselves.

Jeez, these (R) idiots actually make Grampa and Caribou Barbie’s attacks on Obama look like a picnic.